2017 Mini Countryman charging issue

[myNewCountryMan]

Hi all,
I new here I just bought a second hand mini countryman SE, it' from december 2017. Today I tried charging it on a public charging spot with an app. When choosing the setting on the app I chose 5kwh (there were higher options but I thought they would be too fast for the mini). The charger is a 22kwh kind, well it becomes 11kwh if 2 cars connect. So the thing is at first it said it would take 2 hours to charge but after about 1hour the app showed charging stopped. When I looked on the mini settings it said battery 75%. Could it be the dealer sold me a car which already in 3.5 years lost 25% capacity? Could it be that 5kwh is too fast and the mini stopped the charging early? by the way I am using the BMW type 2 charger I bought second hand (the car came with the slow charger which can't be used in public chargers). Could it be the cable which is defective? Thanks a lot in advance for any advice on charging.

 

[insightman]

Hi all,
I new here I just bought a second hand mini countryman SE, it' from december 2017. Today I tried charging it on a public charging spot with an app. When choosing the setting on the app I chose 5kwh (there were higher options but I thought they would be too fast for the mini). The charger is a 22kwh kind, well it becomes 11kwh if 2 cars connect. So the thing is at first it said it would take 2 hours to charge but after about 1hour the app showed charging stopped. When I looked on the mini settings it said battery 75%. Could it be the dealer sold me a car which already in 3.5 years lost 25% capacity? Could it be that 5kwh is too fast and the mini stopped the charging early? by the way I am using the BMW type 2 charger I bought second hand (the car came with the slow charger which can't be used in public chargers). Could it be the cable which is defective? Thanks a lot in advance for any advice on charging.

First of all some terminology niggling. The actual charger is in your car (as it is in all EVs). It controls the EVSE (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment) that supplies power for charging. You wrote "the car came with the slow charger which can't be used in public chargers." That makes me wonder if you're in Europe or the UK, where you have to bring your own cable to connect with a public EVSE. Otherwise, I assume you mean the 120-Volt charging cable (actually an EVSE) that came with the car. You can't use that with a public EVSE because it simply plugs into a 15-Amp 120-Volt outlet.

I assume you mean you have a 240-Volt "Level 2" rather than "type 2" BMW EVSE. Have you not been able to try charging on that EVSE? Many public EVSEs have problems so you need to try more than one before wondering if your car has a problem. If you don't have your Level 2 EVSE hooked up yet, plug in your Level 1 charging cable. Your 9.6 kWh battery is small enough that you should be able to fill it up in less than 7.5 hours with the Level 1 cable.

In my continuing series of assumptions, I'm assuming you mean you didn't see 100% charge, not that your Guess-O-Meter didn't tell you your Countryman had the "full" 18 miles of EV range. The Guess-O-Meter cannot be trusted--it uses inputs and algorithms that no one can understand and it has no idea of what kind of driving you're about to do: mountains, expressway speeds, flat-lands, wind speed, temperature, heater/AC usage, etc. all affect a car's range.

Welcome to the forum! I should have said that first.

 

[myNewCountryMan]

First of all some terminology niggling. The actual charger is in your car (as it is in all EVs). It controls the EVSE (Electric Vehicle Service Equipment) that supplies power for charging. You wrote "the car came with the slow charger which can't be used in public chargers." That makes me wonder if you're in Europe or the UK, where you have to bring your own cable to connect with a public EVSE. Otherwise, I assume you mean the 120-Volt charging cable (actually an EVSE) that came with the car. You can't use that with a public EVSE because it simply plugs into a 15-Amp 120-Volt outlet.

I assume you mean you have a 240-Volt "Level 2" rather than "type 2" BMW EVSE. Have you not been able to try charging on that EVSE? Many public EVSEs have problems so you need to try more than one before wondering if your car has a problem. If you don't have your Level 2 EVSE hooked up yet, plug in your Level 1 charging cable. Your 9.6 kWh battery is small enough that you should be able to fill it up in less than 7.5 hours with the Level 1 cable.

In my continuing series of assumptions, I'm assuming you mean you didn't see 100% charge, not that your Guess-O-Meter didn't tell you your Countryman had the "full" 18 miles of EV range. The Guess-O-Meter cannot be trusted--it uses inputs and algorithms that no one can understand and it has no idea of what kind of driving you're about to do: mountains, expressway speeds, flat-lands, wind speed, temperature, heater/AC usage, etc. all affect a car's range.

Welcome to the forum! I should have said that first.

Thanks a lot insightman, indeed you guessed right I am in Europe but still it's the same, the charging stations are the same: sometimes it works, sometimes it does not (not fully). I tried another place and it charged all right.

 

[insightman]

Thanks a lot insightman, indeed you guessed right I am in Europe but still it's the same, the charging stations are the same: sometimes it works, sometimes it does not (not fully). I tried another place and it charged all right.

Then I'll assume I was wrong and in Europe you do have "type 2" EVSEs?